Selected prose and poetry of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

112 p. Transcription based on: Works: The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Edited by her grandson Lord Wharncliffe, Third Edition, with Additions and Corrections Derived from the original Manuscripts, with Notes, and a New Memoir
By W. Moy Thomas. In Two Volumes. London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. MDCCCLXI
This etext edition of some of the works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu probably should not exist. It derives from the badly edited 1861 Moy Thomas revision of Lord Wharncliffe's edition of 1837. The present editor recognizes that the text, especially of the poems, as found in Thomas is far from being the best available, but as he will have no opportunity to examine the Harrowby Manuscripts, and as others, notably Robert Halsband and Isobel Grundy, have already done so with excellent scholarship, readers are directed to their editions of Lady Mary's works for the definitive versions. This selection of works from the Thomas edition has been made on the dual assumptions that (a) Thomas is by now safely in the public domain and (b) the vagaries of Dallaway's, Wharncliffe's, and Thomas's editing are of historical interest in themselves. Also, Thomas's edition was printed on a high acid paper which is rapidly crumbling; the time may come when viable copies will be hard to find. I have undertaken to restore vocalic elisions which had been expanded, but all other punctuation, and capitalization and spelling, have been retained as found in Thomas. Pagination is not indicated, although pagination cited by Thomas has been retained in his notes. Endnotes are indicated within braces and hyperlinked. The editor wishes to express gratitude for the guidance and encouragement of Dr. Steven Shankman.